October 5, 2001

Mrs. Felicia Sanchez
102 Park Avenue
Anytown, KY 40506

Dear Mrs. Sanchez:

Kantapple County Schools has a firm commitment to making our schools inviting and safe places for our students, staff, and families. In light of this commitment, we are currently working on issues of school climate and school safety. The findings from our study will be presented in a report to the Kantapple County School Board, which will consider recommendations about making our schools as safe and comfortable as possible.

We are in the process of conducting focus group research to find out whether Kantapple County students feel that school is inviting and safe. For this research on school safety we will be conducting two focus groups in each Kantapple County middle school and high school in October, and one focus group in each Kantapple County elementary school with students in grades 4 and 5.

Your daughter, Maria, has agreed to help facilitate one or more of these groups. She will receive training on October 13. Maria will help facilitate a focus group of middle school students on October 23, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. The focus group will include approximately seven or eight female middle school students from grades 6 through 8. The focus group will be under the guidance and supervision of adult site managers from the school community. We will contact your daughter's school to arrange for her excused absence on that day.

We have extended this invitation to students like Maria for two reasons. First, a substantial amount of research suggests that people in focus groups are most comfortable when someone much like themselves is conducting the group. Consequently, we expect the focus groups to be significantly more successful with student facilitators. Second, the experience of conducting these focus groups under expert supervision will further teach the students skills they can use in college and later in the workplace.

As students arrive to take part in the focus group, the adult site manager will greet them and provide support for the student facilitators. Once the focus group begins, one or more adults will be in an adjacent room listening on headphones to the conversation taking place. A tape recording will be made of each session for the purpose of analysis. The tapes will be used to make a written transcript of the session in which all names and identities are removed. As a confidentiality measure, Maria's name will not be identified in the written report.

I hope you will give your consent by signing the enclosed parental permission form. Please return it to our office in the enclosed envelope by October 11. Please call me if you have any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Harold Brown